


Not A Part of This Op

by Celeste666



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America has a crush, F/M, Romance for Steve Rogers, Slide tackle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 20:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8637691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celeste666/pseuds/Celeste666
Summary: Steve has his hands full trying to protect a Columbia University professor who knows a lot more than she's telling.





	

"Not A Part of This Op"

“Ummm.” She heard the now familiar voice down beside her at floor level. She kept her eyes closed. “Did nobody mention that you weren’t supposed to be part of this operation?” Some warmth was mixed with the exasperation. She raised a finger.  
“I’m pretty sure there was a double negative in there somewhere.”   
He sighed. She heard the crowd shuffle again.  
“OK doc,” another familiar accent drifting down from above her along with the jingle of keys, cuffs and other cop what-not. “Definite red card on the play. Immediate ejection from the game.”  
“Javier, Man!” she was gesturing. “You had no angle on that play!”  
“Oh,” he interrupted. “So, I knew you’d object, so, I consulted the camera see…” She heard rustling; slit her eyes open. Steve was rising to stand, extending his hand.  
“Officer, Steve Rogers.” He introduced himself.  
“Yeah,” Javier shaking his hand. “Made you weeks ago.”  
“ ’Cause of course,” she continued from her position, flat on the floor, “no reason for anyone to have introduced you guys.”  
“So what’s on camera?” Steve asked.  
“Oh, it’s good – the tackle. Actually already downloaded it to my phone.”  
“Guys!” Cedar started to sit up, felt a stab and yelped, went back down on her right elbow, eased herself to the floor. Both men were hovering now, one on either side.  
“S’ok. S’ok.” She huffed.  
Javier was whispering “Old injury? Left side, right? I mean, ribs on the left, collarbone?”  
“Pretty. Much.” She said slowly, exhaling with intention.  
“Old injury?” Steve asked.  
“Yah, probably from slide tackling someone.” Javier, deftly brushing it off. She attempted to play along.  
“As you well know, a slide tackle is a perfectly legal maneuver...”  
The cop interrupted, louder, “If you’re going for the ball lady, and never from behind! Tell me doc, you’re in the subway, did I miss the ball?” She laughed, sucked in a breath.  
“Hey,” Javier’s hand now light on her right shoulder. “Let’s not puncture a lung with any re-broken ribs, ok?”  
“Ambulance?” asked Steve tightly.  
“5-7 minutes out.” Javier responded.  
“But” Steve began. She felt something unspoken pass between the men that made him stop. She sneaked a look and found Steve frowning down at her. His face softened.  
“Hey…” he began. She snapped her eyes shut.  
“Cedar.” Stern, exasperated, then changing tone.  
“What’s a slide tackle?”  
“Oh!” Of course, he probably didn’t know a thing about soccer. She rotated her face his way. “Futbol!” she clarified with a gentle fist pump, as Javier chuckled.  
“It’s this move where a player sort of – well, you do this move that looks kind of like sliding into a base in baseball, right?” checking to see if he was following. He nodded.  
“So feet first, one foot slightly in front of the other, timing it so you sort of thread the needle between the other player’s feet, the one dribbling the ball.” Checking his face again for understanding.  
“Time it right and the ball pops right out the other side, and they totally overrun it. If you’re still on your feet you run right behind them and pick up the ball. Or one of your other players picks it up.” She gestured toward herself, lying there. “If, say, you fall down.”  
“Ok,” Steve nodded then looked over at Javier. “Is this a level 2 or a level 3 concussion I’m looking at?”  
“UH!” Cedar tsked and snapped her eyes shut again, with attitude. Busted.  
Javier chuckled. “Nice one. Don’t really categorize them like that anymore, by pupil size, but responsiveness wasn’t so hot when I shined my pin light in there. So, talking in those terms, level 2 at least.”  
“Uh, huh.” Steve said.  
“Hey,” she resumed arguing. “Did I take him down? I took him down right?”  
“Yes, yes you did. And yourself too. You took him down and” pause “concussed…yourself.” Another sigh, but somehow the warmth undeniable.  
“OK,” Javier was moving to standing and through the roaring still in her ears she thought she could hear sirens. Crackling of static then Javier responding.  
“Say again?” That was Steve, standing too. “OK, be right there.”  
She opened her eyes in time to see him kneeling back down. She tried to throw him shade but by the lurch in her stomach figured she’d only managed to cross her eyes. He touched something behind his ear. Oh, ‘on coms’ was something she’d heard them say. He’d been listening to someone else on the team, responding to them.  
He looked at her, bit his bottom lip. Looked around. Javier was gone, probably clearing the way for EMTs.  
“I gotta run – uh – check out something, but…” she was nodding.  
“Sure, of course.” She began.  
“Do you, ummm, have a card or something?” He was still looking around, scanning the chaos she guessed. The ‘goon,’ as she was now calling him, had grabbed her bag. She was pretty sure she’d broken a heel, that her stockings were trashed, but someone had slipped her Baglucci under her head as a cushion.   
“Yeah,” she was reaching around carefully with her right arm and sliding it out from under.  
“No wait, its ok I…” he was still looking around. Looking guilty?  
“Here,” she pushed it towards him. “Just unzip the pocket on the back. Cards are in there.”  
He fumbled with the purse, unzipped the back, took a card, zipped it back and put the card in his shirt pocket. Now he was sliding it back toward her, lifting her head gently, his big hand warm on the back of her neck. She shifted, trying to focus on his face, too close, all jawline; clenched. Then his eyes on hers. A quiet, soft moment. Or just the haze of concussion?   
Shaking his head, then softly, “Geez, Cedar.”

Javier was striding back, too loud, too much light, three EMTs with a stretcher.   
“Oh, Javi!” She nearly swore, but half-swooned instead. He knelt again.  
“Hey doc. Relax ok. Let these good folks do their jobs.” Sterner than usual, then softer. “Let’s keep those pretty green lights on, K?”  
Steve shifted his gaze to Javier, considering, then standing, extending his hand again.  
“Good to meet you.” They shook. “Try to keep her off the field?” Inclining his head toward the floor to indicate Cedar.  
“I’m just one man.” Javier smiling.

 

‘That,’ he thought to himself, ‘was really not ok.’ ‘But what??’ he argued back. ‘No harm done.’ This op was over, they had someone in custody, maybe more by now. ‘Still not ok,’ came the echo, keeping the debate alive, hustling through the subway and starting up the stairs.  
‘Hang on…’ came a thought. ‘What would Buck say?’ ‘Don’t go there!’ announced the other side, but he couldn’t help but smile. His friend would’ve moved on her three days into the operation. The smile and frown chased each other like a light and shadow across his face. How nice it would be to talk to that friend, that particular friend, right now.   
His pocked buzzed and rang as his feet hit the top step. He grabbed it answering “Rogers.”  
“Steve,” Natasha. Direct, a little cross. ‘Crap!’  
“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” He depressed the button on the device behind his ear.  
“Something wrong with coms?” she asked, now in his head.  
“No, no” he began and wondered if he was going to…“Maybe the subway?” Lie? Yep, looked that way. Shook his head. “You copy?”  
“I copy.” The voice in his ear clear and close, the suspicion in her voice.   
‘Not OK,’ in his own head.

The EMTs had her out on the sidewalk now, ambulance pulled alongside. She was semi-reclined in the stretcher about to be loaded in. Oh, boy. Caught out. What was this going to be? Maybe nothing. Just received word that she wanted to talk to him, refusing to leave until she did. Don’t make too much of it.  
She’d seen him, was shifting to sit up further. He waved her back and jogged the last few paces.  
“What’s up,” he asked, thinking of nothing better.  
“Well, what happened!” she demanded in a hiss. “Nobody’s telling me anything.”  
“Oh,” Relief. “They got the guy” he smiled thinking the one she ‘took down.’ “…and recovered your bag.”  
“Huh,” she nodded. “Excuse me,” politely to the EMT nearest, “could we have a minute?” The guy shrugged and huffed off. Cedar rolled her eyes. He continued quietly.  
“Someone with DOD has your bag. They’ll want you to check the contents.”  
“Yeah,” she seemed distracted. Then, “What else happened?” He drew back a bit. She watched his face. Yep, there it was, the eyebrows knitting.  
“You’d be a terrible gambler, you know that?” she asked.  
“What?” shaking his head, confused.  
“You’re full of tells.” Now that she could focus a little better she’d decided to try staring him down. Ooops! Bad idea. In response he’d shifted closer, fuzzed out, her stomach lurched and she closed her eyes again.  
“What do you know, Cedar?” tense whisper, his hands on the rail of the stretcher. “…and by the way, what got in to you? Why in hell’d you tackle that guy?!”  
She mustered a look and challenged “You first.”  
He tilted his head away from her, muttering under his breath? He looked down the street. Really annoyed? Annoyed? Mildly annoyed? Then blue eyes back on her.  
“They went for DeFries at the same time.” Stopping to gauge her reaction, coming into focus.  
“He’s ok” she stated. Now Steve looked up again, studying the buildings? The sky?  
“Yeah, but… that’s not exactly how I’d put it.” Face serious.  
“Whad’a you mean?” she asked.  
Well dammit. He’d just tell her.  
“He rolled right over. The whole team – two teams actually, overheard it. Three guys trapped him on a landing in a stairwell. We had teams right there; one on the landing above, one just below. He was never even in danger.” She was nodding.  
“They asked if he was the Bill DeFries who did the Crypto-Genetics paper.” He paused, face starting to itch a bit with coming shame.  
“And!” Cedar prompted.  
“He says something like ‘Yes, but I think it’s Dr.Wexler you’re looking for. It’s her research that’s borne out the potential usefulness…” he stopped because he realized he’d dropped into mimicking the pompous vibe that surrounded DeFries.   
Cedar’s mouth was a wide O, jaw dropped. “What?!!” she shouted, throwing up her hands.  
Oh, damn, OK, too much! “Cedar, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” he began.  
She stared back at him, widely dilated eyes making her look a little less than sane. Dropped her hands back into her lap.  
“He gave me credit?!” she demanded, half shouting, half declaring; to Steve, to no one. “Bastard finally gives me some credit and…” Two EMTs, all frowns, were hurrying over.  
“Hey, hey” Steve took a hand in his. “Easy does it, OK? You need to….” Interrupted by the EMTs.  
“Sir, I’m sorry but her BP and heart rate are already …”  
“Oh, my heart rates always high! I told you that.” she said, swatting at the EMT but leaning back anyway. “I’m fine. I’m good. One more minute, OK! Is Dr. Singh even over there yet?” She was shoo-ing them off, but he saw a fine grimace of pain as she settled back. He softened his grip.   
“Did they have guns?” The question surprised him, then a bulb went off.  
“No. No guns.”  
“Huh.”  
“Yeah, it’s almost like I had it backwards this whole time.” Suddenly there was either a question or an accusation in his voice. She pulled in a breath.  
“Why’d you go after that guy? What’s on your computer, Cedar?” His voice soft. Her eyes blinked open.  
“That’s not…” she started then stopped, closed them again, getting tired, the light too bright, the street too loud.  
“It’s not that. There’s nothing I can think of in that bag or on that computer.” Fudging the larger truth with a completely accurate answer. “He made me mad.” She started. Heard a noise from him, a laugh?  
“And you are one of those women who chases purse snatchers, yeah?” Such a nice voice, so close.  
“Caught.” She clarified, smiling. “Caught a purse snatcher.” He squeezed her hand. She risked a look, guessing he’d be frowning or shaking his head.   
He was staring at her, serious, searching. His look asking for her to go on.  
“Well, I got so close that he threw it back at me.” She continued, knowing that’s not what he wanted. Bit of a grin but eyes still urging her back on topic.  
“Oh, OK.” She blew out a breath. “He said he’d shoot blondie.” She admitted.  
“Blondie!?” A half laugh, half question.  
“Yes. You, dummie. He said he’d seen us in the square and that he’d shoot you if I didn’t come with him.” He was frowning now. “I knew you’d gone around in front of us. After he got the bag and was running off, I could see you on the other side of the turnstile. He was reaching around behind him, to his waistband.” Now she was urging him, with her tone, to please understand.  
“Cedar,” he began, then stopped. “Well, I guess this backfired.”  
“What? How do you mean?”  
“Me. Being conspicuous was supposed to keep you safer.”  
“Well, I am safe” she protested, starting to try and sit up again.  
“You’re concussed,” his hands now light on her shoulders, guiding her back.  
“But I’m not shot or kidnapped! You have people in custody…”still protesting, but letting him take her weight.  
“Look, you need to get to the hospital.” Now he was motioning to the EMTs.  
“Steve, wait.” She was settling back though, letting the EMTs adjust the stretcher to recline, prepare to load her into the ambulance.  
“Yeah?” he asked across the woman with the radio.  
“My card…” she began.   
Here it comes  
“You asked for my card. Did you have another question? Is there some follow up or something?”   
The woman with the radio stepped into the ambulance. Moment of truth.  
He stepped close, leaned down and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers, soft, gentle. His eyes bright at her surprise.  
“Nope,” he grinned.  
“I just wanted your phone number.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to know what happens next with Steve and Cedar check out "O My America" Celeste666


End file.
